The Laurel Community Center Games Club has sessions every Thursday starting at 6 PM, lasting until 9 PM. The Community Center is located at 7901 Cypress Street, Laurel MD 20707. Phone: (301)-497-0300. The Laurel Community Center Games Club is affiliated with the Games Club of Maryland ("GCOM"), which has over 30 locations in Maryland and the surrounding states and the District of Columbia.

Contributors

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

An even dozen for this week: John B, Mike, Rouslan, Doug, Greg, Alex, Lina, Rembert, Eugene, Arnold (back for a second time), Tim and myself were the attendees. Six different games got played during the course of the session: Portal, Between Two Cities, Shakespeare, Lords of Waterdeep, Machi Koro and Valley of the Kings.

Portal was a new game that Mike had brought that supposedly mimics a computer game that I have never played. The four players were Mike, Rouslan, John B and myself -- the first four early arrivals. By the time we have played a few rounds, more people had showed so we broke the game up. Not sure who was ahead or even what you needed to do to win.

I was in a group of four that played a new game, an Essen release called Shakespeare that had just arrived the day before. It's about putting together a play, getting actors, seamstresses, set builders, building sets, designing costumes, keeping the morale and quality of your performers high to score VPs. Greg did the best, winning with 15, followed by Doug and myself at 13, Lina with 12. (Doug took second on the money tiebreaker.) With the rulebook stating that 22 is a good score with four players, looks like we all have some ways to go to improve.

Between Two Cities was another new game that had just come out. Mike and I had played a prototype last year, and one of the co-designers (Ben Rosset) has been to the club and was the designer of Mars Needs Mechanics and one of my favorites, BrewCrafters. The game was a six-player, won by Tim (58). John B, Alex, Rembert, Rouslan and Tim were the other players.

Eugene arrived and set up a four-player Lords of Waterdeep. This game was won by Tim (143), with Eugene (139) second, Arnold (117) third, Rembert (79) fourth.

Meanwhile, at the other table, Mike won a really close game of Machi Koro, played with the Millonaires Row expansion. John B, Alex and Rouslan were the other players.

Finally, John B and Rouslan played Valley of the Kings. Believe it was a two-player as Mike and Alex may have left early. Sorry, no scores available, I was focused on wrapping up the Shakespeare game, which ran until the 9 PM closing time.

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Attendance of nine this week: Mike, John B, Lina, Greg, Rouslan, Matt, Tim, Rembert and myself. We split into two groups and played a total of three games: Power Grid-India, Nations:the Dice Game and the new version of St. Petersburg.

Power Grid-India was a five-player and took most of the session time. A blackout on the next to last turn hurt Tim who then lacked the funds to build out to 15 citites. John B managed to come from behind and beat Tim by one dollar on the tiebreaker. Scores: John B 14 (8), Tim 14 (7), Matt 13 (73), Greg 12 (68), Mike 12 (55).

The other table got in two games -- almost. First up was Nations: the Dice Game, won by yours truly on the turn order tiebreaker (second time I have seen a game decided by this). Final scores: John 29, Rouslan 29, Lina 21.

Second game up was St. Petersburg, the new version with a fifth set of cards for the Market. Didn't quite make it to the finish line (ended with one turn left), but by that point Lina was the clear leader. Scores when we picked up were Lina 80, Rouslan 62, myself 59, Rembert 53. Playing the Noble strategy and ignoring the new stuff in this game does NOT work.

Thursday, October 8, 2015

Eight in attendance this week: Doug, Mike, Eugene, John B, Neville, Rouslan, myself and one first-time attendee at the club, Arnold. We played four different games: Viticulture (with Tuscany expansion), El Grande, Vault Wars and Cheeky Monkey (x2). Since we started out with two longer games (Viticulture and El Grande), unfortunately Arnold (who came in a bit late) did not get into a game.

Viticulture was a three-player, won by me. Final scores were John W 31, Eugene 19, John B 11.

Each of the two groups had time left for some other games. Vault Wars (three-player) was won by Rouslan 32, ahead of Doug (15) and Neville (14). Cheeky Monkey was played twice. First game: John B 41, Eugene 27, John W 17. Second game: John B 36, John W 31, Eugene 27.